1947-10-31 — Page 2

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THE HONGKONG TELEGRAPH, FRIDAY, OCTOBER 31, 1947.

lie in the shadows

The mysteries that lie in the behind the life of Dr. Robert G. Clements

ONE MAN, FOUR WIVES

-AS Dr Robert George Cle- ments, of Southport, an arch poisoner who sped all

or some of his four wives to their graves and then swallow- ed a fatal phial himself when Nemesis was on his heels?

Or was he merely an innocent but unlucky man caught in an exceptional series of matrimo- nial tragedies?

We can accept as a fact that women could not resist the doc- tor, whose profession brought him in contact with hundreds of them.

We have the evidence of his brother, the Rev. William Cle- ments: "No sooner was wife dead than another was on his doorstep to take her place."

one*

What are the facts? Ilis life story holds many baffling prob. be which may never

jema solved.

by

AND

2009 TINITITETERINIATO AFSPIELEDIGITALETINERANCINE SUCHTEN MITEREOTEA

FATE

GWYN

Concluding the most sensational inquest in Britain in years, a Southport coroner's jury this June returned a verdict that Dr Robert Clements, who died by his own hand, had mur- dered his fourth wife with poison.

The care, involving also the death of Dr James Houston, 38-year-old pathologist, reached national prominence when the fourth wife's funeral was stopped, an autopsy ordered and detectives learned that all Dr Clements' three former wives had also died and he had signed their death certi- ficates.

In this article, Gwyn Lewis relates the circumstances sur- rounding Dr Clements' early life and his four marriages, which he has picced, together into опе cohesive account after weeks of patient investigations.

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as. A man,

Dr Clements, 65 when found being a good doctor but insincere She carned Rood money 35 dying by the police at his five- roomed flat on the Promenade, Southport, was born at Limer. ick, one of four brothers. His father WHS 221 Schools.

THE

Inspector of

BRILLIANT

As a schoolboy

LEWIS

Promenade. People said the fourth Mrs Clements was "close" with her inoncy.

This may have come an a dis- turbing revelation to the doctor, n the

wedding itself was a spare-no- expense affair in London at fashion- ablo St. George's, Hanover-square,

It took pince in June 1940. Tho bride

Won 43 years of age. Dr Clements beamed happily psed for the photographer at the church door,

came

па

ho

The doctor during the war be- deputy Medical Offeer of Health for the town of Blackburn and motored there every day.

Baty munner toned down with advancing ago.

With so many bitter Dr Clements must have

memories

watched

the health of his fourth wife with anxiety; but all seemned well until the last six months of her life.

She began to take sleeping drugs. Her complexioń went sallow.

Miss Mary Elizabeth Clements, her sister-in-law, received a letter from her containing the fateful pas- "I am spiritually happy, but

SUKC,

freel very indeed."

Dr. Robert Clements

Friends at the close of last year Arrangements were made for her telephoned to wish her a happy New buyer

it was said Year. There was no reply to these for a Belfast shore and was cremation at Liverpool.

calls. but They said he was of the gushing the daughter of a County Armagh the doctor opposed cremation

Crit.

Dr Clemants later explained that promised to full his wife's wish. type.

he had cut off the telephone at ho did not wish her to be disturbed.

have The doctor is reported to called at the house of a Woman friend to whom he confessed ho

BUT

GOSSIP

Unorthodox habits

the doctor continued to prosper and to work hard. The medical Journals published articles by him..

from family moved

the little linen Limerick tr town of Dungannon, between Relfast and Londonderry.

The father took a 12-poomed houses there and settled down to devote his retirement to the faunching of his

30.

to

The boy Robert he decided skuld become a dortor, He had shown brillisner at school and went graduale in aedicine at Belfast's Quest's University in 1904.

Then his sucial repitation began to decline.

Brother ductors discussed his urthodox habita, The gossip that was steadily accumulating round Dr

zbalet Ciratents

hanver $1 awkward sequod for him in 1920, but in that year the first of als wices

ched.

SIL

ime

To start

The doctor who had inscribed on the tombstone of his first two wives In Thy Presence Fullness and Joy," as tribute to Edyth Anna Mercier, and "Falthful unit: Death" for the consumptive Mary McCleery, discovered that his third wife was Jazy.

The doctor's brother says she used to lie in bed all day.

THIRD WIFE

11 years' marriage

CREMATION

he

Dr J. Holmes signed the death cer-

fente. Cause of death: Mydold leukemia, an acute form of nuϾmla.

for a private postmortem to be made

Police too late WHATEVER the truth, cremation feared his wife would not recover. was actually to progress when He muggested Iving at her house the telephone mane with a messure if his wife died. Trom the police ordering it not to

The last Mrs Clements was moved take prace.

Nursing to Astley House

Home The potter had been building up an Scarlsbrick-road, Southport. She onmotes confidential record round died there on May 27 Inst, wilkin De Clements. The altempt to stop a few days of the seventh anniver- the cremation was made too late.

sary of her wedding. Dr Clements within a few months

for the Fourty was hurried

time.

Ver wealthy father died NIX THIS third marriage, destined to as his last bride Miss Burnett.

end in the death of the wife 11 months before the marriage, leavhug

POST-MORTEM years later, was nevertheless sak) to her £22,000. He ako, is believed to The doctor let! almost

have been on the whole a happy one, have been attended by Dr Clements, Made by friend

The doctor's brother, commenting mediately for Manchester

The Juetor during the period on this marriage, sak:

thie DR Clements, "in the interests of aftesh.

ventured south to Hamphire, where wife had not been dead 24 hours when selence," as he put it, arranged He had treated his wife for sleepy he opened a test hure for the Miss Harmelt was after him. He showed every sin of develops sickness; when this was followed by

"Her father, four days after my by a friend. Dr James Montague ing Into a fine type of man. In her death from cardiac failure ho treatment of patients at fransgore,

arranged a Unuston. professions ear Christchurch but it was a finan- brother's bereavement. did what the medical student years be excelled at games,

motoring tour with his daughter, my The fathers of these two doctors achieving national status at fugger consider a most unwise thing thought vial failure.

The third Mrs Clements was to brather uni kinilt as members of had been close associates. Dr Hous quite legal. He signed the dently and lacrosse.

certificate.

ree something of the fascination her party.

tan performed the post-mortem and Mr Harnett said he thought the the tragedy thai hack dogged She was buried at Belfast City husband held for women,

"whee later took her tour would take the doctor's mind his friend was soon to envelop him Cemetery. There were no children

this marringe, which had lasted place as fourth wife was introduced off his tragic lass. Other women be because of that.

Two Ban telephoning my brother from all to her by her band. The

Arrangements for the funeral ser- 12 years.

over the

country. They all wanted vice at Christ Church were co- women became friends, it is eatd.

142 The miller's daughter died

pleted. £10 9, but The year 1934 saw the opening of

The Clements for als al ventur testate, leaving only

The mourners were on their way final phare in the life of Dr in matrimony may have married she is supposed to have inherited the

to the churcli. But at his office the greater part of £25,000 from her Clements with his move to Soutoney, but according to the ductor's

Mr C. Bolton, coroner, was tele- pal to fake up an appointment of brother he saw little of it. father shortly after her marriage.

phoning the police. His orders' were reddenl

The that was antidy and badly , that the funeral was to be stopped. One of the minor mysteries Hydro, now derapied by a Govern borang his we would not allow

physician at the Kenworthy

There would be no funeral, he ment department.

houselieeper FAN a, maid

said, until he had heki un Inquest. idesman at Christ goed. He became a

Word was left at

the Clements' the Cla Church, Southport, but he contermed

Was to pay extravagant compliments to the women of his seaside town.

Wamen ofther found these boring

they fell in love with h Success is aid to have made him T

Clements Casanova, mit as boastful, not as

Pleasureland a medical man of skill.

His income, ugnin according-to-Jais family, rose to £6.000 a year.

Some said his blue twinkling eyes mirrored truth and honesty, others! spoke of him as possur,

Equipped with his M. B. he inter- rupted his studies to serve his medi- cal apprenticeship under dectors in Staffordshire and Cheshire.

He returned to Belfast to take his M.D. and marry for the first time. He was then only 26, and deckled, as to many young doctors do, that mi

sareeg of a doctor.

early marriage is essential to the

FIRST BRIDE 10 years

older

ITE chose for his fest bride a win- ten years his senior, Miss Edyth Anna Mercing, daughter of a wealthy Belfast miller,

Her family lived in the fashionable Callege Caridens area of Belfast. The wedding was remembered as "an event of the sneiul season."

The young doctor set up his first practice in Stranmillis-road, Belfast. He worked hard and continued his studies. determined 10 Lain his PRCS. This degree came in 1912, four years after

marriage. During these years the young man from the Irish countryside developed

into a man about town.

e nestfred polished manners, an engiging personality: he even gradually overdel these assets in a doctor, becoming a somewhat vain dandy,

By now he had moved into the money that circulated more freely about his new practice in the College Gardens neighbourhood.

He went out of his rounds wearing

at all times top hat, frock evat, and 'white spats,

rolled umbrella,

in.

That

is what happened 1*150* money.

Shortly after the doctor's depar- fure for England there were storie: investigations into the of lleial legality of some of his operations

on women.

There was aka talk of his baving forged a signature hark over- draft.

Before these suspicious. coute crystallise into definite charges De Clements was lost in the abscurity of the dingy Manchester suburb of Mos

Side.

The woma

It all agree that he was no snob. Postmen and tradesmen he greet- ed by their Christm Dames. lie continued to be a fastidits dresser, but careless at cards,

Here he found that his debonair appearance did not impress the inc tory workers of the district.

So he discarded the top hat and white spats, but

he kept his ill

Reps of Battery among the women.

Then within a year of his hercave- ment he either felt handicapped by the lack of a wife and married the 27-year-old Mary McCleery, or, as his brother puts it, "was chased by HE was cautious in maney matters, her to the altar."

THE SECOND

A delicate girl

CAUTIOUS

maruy

THE FOURTH She was 'close'

a

ไป

be

flat that the doctor

10

phone the police iminediately.

tele-

This message was delivered to r

Clements that evening by Miss Mary

HERE were few parties at the Keefe, housekeeper in the flat be- Hotne overlooking low, The puzzled doctor asked her いりま the Southport

(Continued on Page 3)

BY THE WAY

by Beachcomber

TT is expected that C. Suet, waterproof typewriter cases

Esq, of a

In money matters

A

as this incident will show. fellow doctor fractured a limb during convalescener casually askett Dr Clements whether he had "electre- massage at als hydro,

Dr Clements replied, "Certainly, like" The other duetur erpted

sensation at next week's Li- beral Summer School when he launches his campaign for Mass Independent Schedulisation of Planning Formulae,

couple of yak-farms or something like that in exchange-and not the uji felds they are expecting." "My baby, my elever

little girl," suid the old nurse with revolting

sentimentality.

Kitchen chatter

le carried a neatly THE second Mrs Clements was me for treatment, whenever you local with regional hourds, and by MARS, Whelkatuffer

It is an

each other are ex

a

(author of Nineteen Recipes for Cods'-Fin asces) in 14 be put in charge of special Ministry of Food Conkery School. Her first job will be to ex- released posed periment with the newly powdered whate-meat, which is said to contain more riboflavin than cried rhinoceros. Twelve fcrrets fed on tiran round and round Wor- plesdon Town Hall till they dropped dead from exhaustion.

This scheme proposes to by-pass redundant schedules by linking up

village girl from Dough. County-

developing a nexus of plon-conscious Patients spoke of him having "the Antrim,

to son and was pained afterwards to receive soups controlled fron below, and Brand

Women Blocked to

responsible

planning She was a defiente girl. A Frand tanner," him. Men found a more rugged type was born, but the mother did not "

unwritten law song officer appointed by the Board of | preferable.

live long. She developed tuber- The handsome doctor, either as culosis and death cane within dve doctors that preferimal services Social Research. "Organfred sehe dulation," said Suet yesterday, "i part of his technique in developing years of her marriage.

Dr Climents we not a club mín not only probable, but possible." his practice, or from an inherent Dr Clements again Finned the woskness for winnen. groke to his death certificate, giving the cause of and though he attendasi dances was

in Indifferent cancer,

"Tibetan Moonflower' (XI.) women patients in the most endeur death as endocarditis.

Aftentions paid by Dr Clement ing terms.

She, too, was buried in her native during the lifetime of his had wiINGI-POOS, swathed in a one- Tis darlings" and "pets" - Ireland.

to Mis Amy Victoria Barnell, davet.. ; sided sannick of green smakeskin, doubtedly were taken too seriously is said that the affairs of De ter of Mr R. V. P. Barnett, wealthyreclined on a large scarlet cushion. Twenty Years of Uproar Clements were at that time at Lancashire company director, aroused Her old nurse, Moompi. stood

AN times she seemed low ebb, but the trail second Mrs comment.

side her. "Are you serious about want to be independent of the Clements had been a thrifty house- But the Deepbord habits, of fog this Mr Mince?" asked the rs, orchestra.

(Music critic.} wife and, she dying infestate, the third, Mi... Clements were

"MY

deir

nunny!" ried the tot doctor came into £425,

entirely due to hauen, Cateer was

"he's

a bigger ass then IKE Rustigazzi, who once came The workers of Mess

the in 19

Then whet is your gums?” Hon to the struge while the or- member that the doctor appeared Mr Clements,azaia viened the death | Dingl-Poos disclosed the whitest chestra was tuning up and began heartbroken by this second bereave- certificate. He move the cause of teeth north of latitude 64 in a to sing her stuff without them. The ment.

avati a myocarditis and malignant riazzling smile. "I want to get them conductor protested, but she easily Dr Clements; remained a widower papercusitis,

both into such a state," he said. drowned his words. The rather less than three years; in 1928. She died intestate and her savings, "that they won't inquire too closely the orchestra took up the necom Miss Kathleen Sarah, Burke became amounting to £49, went to into what they are signing. I could pundiment she stopped singing and the third Mrs Clements.'

get rid of any amount their went off.

by many women.

But is more mature wife helped her husband up the ladder of sucers He entered focal politics and, to taky advantage of the high standing of his wife's people, begon to

call him- self Murcier Clements,

This irritated those who were be ginning to dislike his pinusible man-, her. 111, Although suveptible women,' young and not, so young, adored, hius and absorbed his fat- tery, many people spoke of him, as

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